Inside the ALA’s list of the 150 most banned books of the last 35 years.

In honor of Banned Books Week, the American Library Association (ALA) has published a list of the 150 most challenged books documented between 1990 and 2025. The ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 4,235 challenged titles last year, the second-highest total on record. In this season of feverish censorship, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

But what is remarkable is the below list’s content and scope. Here’s a breakdown of the ALA’s data, including key takeaways about the most banned books. Perhaps you’ll be surprised to note that the list includes… Note: I define these as canonized novels written for adults.

Plenty of usual suspects to see here, including Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Killjoys also continue to rail against Salinger, Twain, Wright, Morrison, and Huxley. But on the contemporary end, this reader was surprised to see Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Sara Gruen’s Water For Elephants getting top ban marks.

Who knew censors were so pressed by—respectively—emotional migration, and avenging circus animals? Though a newer category, the graphic novel has apparently put a bee in many a censor’s bonnet. Illustrated bodies being even more alarming than the ones you can imagine based on words alone.

The list includes titles by Alison Bechdel, Gabby Rivera, and Craig Thompson. Notably, a graphic novel adaptation of another frequently banned title, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, caught double fire. Most of these books—like Jessica Love’s Julián Is a Mermaid—concern gender identity and exploration.

Other children’s titles—like Justin Richardson’s And Tango Makes Three—affirm queer families. I was surprised to note the recurrence of Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen. But that brief flash of cartoon baby nudity continues to bother prudes, decades after the book’s first run.